Roofing and process of making the same



Aug. 4, 1942. j A, TOPPING 2,291,850

ROOFING AND PROCESS OF MAKING THE SAME Filed Feb. 14, 1940 j CY Z IINVENTOR fay/v 4 ibPP/A/,

www WM ATTORNEYS Patented Aug. 4, 1942 UNHE RUOFZNG AND PROCESS 0FMAKING THE SAME 4 Claims.

This invention relates to covering material for the roofs and sides ofbuildings, and more particularly to covering material in strip formhaving tabs upon the edge thereof which is to be exposed.

Among the various types of tabs embodied in commercial strip coveringmaterial or strip shingles are tabs having dovetail-shaped outlines.These dovetail tabs, however, by reason or the substantially narrowerwidth of the tab where it joins the main body of the strip, show amarked tendency to hinge about the junction with the main body of thestrip when a wind tends to raise the broader ends of the tabs away fromthe plane of the roof. This puts a practical limitation upon the lengthof dovetail tabs and as a result detracts from the appearance of a roofor side wall covered with strip covering material having such tabs,because of the snub-nosed ap pearance of the tabs.

An object of the present invention is to provide a covering strip havingtabs with generally dovetail outlines which, however, has theconstruction and outline of the tab as a whole so modified that a longertab may be employed without increasing its tendency, by reason of thegreater tab length, to hinge about the junction of the tab with the mainbody of the strip whenever a wind tends to raise the outer end of thetab, with the resultant weakening of the material at this junction.

A further object of the invention is to provide an improved method ofmaking strip shingles of the general type hereinabove referred to, thatis, shingle strips the tabs of which have dovetaillike exposed outlinesbut which are not complementary, which will facilitate cutting thesestrips simultaneously in pairs by a slight notching of the outlines ofwhat would otherwise be strictly complementary strips. While the processof the present invention employs the principle of operation of theprocess described and claimed in my Letters Patent No. 2,006,417,granted July 2, 1935, a new and useful result is obtained by treatingthe entire lengths of the adjacent sides of the tabs of what wouldotherwise be covering strips having complementary rectangular or otherstraight-sided tabs and recesses, leaving only the complementary ends ofthe tabs untouched.

Other objects and important features of the invention will appear fromthe following description and claims when considered in connection withthe accompanying drawing, in which Figure 1 illustrates the novel methodof cutting one type of shingle strips embodying the present inventionfrom roofing material;

Figure 2 shows the novel method applied to producing :a strip withmodified tab outline; and

Figure 3 shows the novel method of cutting shingle strips applied to astrip having tabs with modified dovetail outlines but withoutreinforcing gussets.

As more fully described and illustrated in my Letters Patent No.2,006,417, July 2, 1935, noncomplementary shingle strips may be producedby simultaneously cutting from the adjacent tabs, in the process ofcutting what would otherwise be complementary shingle strips, likenotches upon the two sides of the complementary boundaries, said notchesbeing similarly positioned in the two elements in respect to saidboundaries. As further brought out in said Letters Patent, by combiningthe means for cutting the notches in the adjacent, otherwisecomplementary tabs, into a single die or cutter, the modifiedcomplementary strips, having like tabs, can be produced by a single outwithout first cutting the complementary outlines. In other words, bysimultaneously cutting like notches in the adjacent sides of what wouldotherwise be complementary tabs, non-complementar but like tabs can beproduced by a single cutting operation and with a minimum waste ofmaterial.

Applying the same principle of operation to producing the novel shinglestrip of the present invention, I have found that by extending thenotches from the bases to the ends of the otherwise compiementaryshingle tabs I can produce, from what would otherwise be complementaryshingles having rectangular tabs, two like but non-complementaryshingles having tabs the main extent of each of which is of adovetail-like outline but each of which has a gusset-like connectionwith the main body of the strip, thereby providing a reinforcementagainst any tendency of the tab, as :a whole, to hinge about itsjunction with the strip. I am thus able to produce a shingle strippresenting a dovetail-like tab having a longer and less snub-nosedoverall appearance without increasing the tendency of the tab to hingeabout its narrowest section when its outer end is raised by the wind.

In Figure l of the drawing, in which is shown a strip shingle havingtabs presenting a generally dovetail outline but with reinforcinggussets adjacent to the main body of the strip, the method of cuttingsuch shingle strip-s from roll roofing is illustrated, it being notedthat in the embodiment of the invention illustrated in Figure 1 thesides of the dovetail-like tabs have curved outlines. As shown in Figure1, four shingle strips,

each of the desired strip length and of the desired width, or eifectiveshingle length, from the back edge of the main body of the strip to theend of the tab, may be cut from roll roofing of a width equal to lessthan four times the desired strip width or effective shingle length byreason of the overlap. For example, four strips of a width or eifectiveshingle length of 11 may be cut from roll roofing 36 wide, the tabs ofeach strip being cut from the material removed to form the spacesbetween the tabs of other strips.

The resultant shingle strip produced by the novel process of thisinvention are, however, noncomplementary although they have like tabswith side edges of substantially any desired contour. This result isobtained by so making like cuts in the adjacent side edges of the tabsof what would otherwise be complementary strips, at the same time thatthe strips are cut from the roll, that the resultant strips will stillhave like tabs but that they will no longer be complementary except asto their ends.

As shown in Figure 1, strips 2, 4, 6 and 8 may be simultaneously cutfrom the breadth of a sheet of roll roofing sufficiently wide to givethe desired main body and tab dimensions for the resultant shinglestrips. The die or cutter which effects the cutting may be of the usualtype, that is, a die or cutter formed on a cylinder which, as itrotates, presents pairs of straight cutting edges l0, I2, I4 and It forcutting the ends of the tabs and the bottoms of the recesses between thetabs, the ends of the tabs and the bottoms of the recesses of adjacentstrips being complementary, and presents a cutting edge l8 forseparating the back edges of the middle two strips, the back edges 20 ofthe outer strips being formed by the side edges of the roll roofing.Other cutting knives arranged crosswise of the path of travel of thesheet cut the ends 22 and 24 of the respective strips.

Instead of providing knives for first dividing the sheet into strip-shaving complementary sides 26, or even partially cutting saidcomplementary sides, the present invention provides for removing aportion of the entire complementary side edge of each of two adjacenttabs so that the tabs will be both simultaneously separated from eachother and simultaneously recessed throughout the entire lengths of theadjacent tab sides. As illustrated in Figure 1, the die cylinder may beprovided with a cutting knife that will remove from the roll roofing anelliptical piece 28 made up of material, half of which is removed fromthe side edge of what would otherwise be a tab having a rectangularoutline complementary to an adjacent tab having a like outline and halfof which is removed from the adjacent side edge of said adjacent tab. Inthis manner a die or cutter having a closed outline which extends fromthe cutter which cuts the bottom edge of one tab to the cutter whichcuts the complementary bottom edge of the adjacent tab will effect boththe desired side contour formation and the complete separation of theside edges of said adjacent tabs.

In Figure 2 of the drawing, the method of cutting is shown as employedto produce a shingle strip having tabs of generally dovetail outlinewith reinforcing gussets, in which, however, the sides of the tabs haveangular notches instead of curved notches. It will be noted that innotching the side edges of what would otherwise be complementary tabs toproduce the shingle strip shown in Figure 2, the closed outline of thedie which simultaneously removes portions of the side edges of twoadjacent tabs will be an obliqueangled parallelogram with the obtuseangles 30 thereof so offset along the common boundary between the twotabs that the resultant notches formed in the sides of the adjacent tabsare in like positions in the two tabs and that the apices 32 of theacute angles of the oblique-angled parallelogram lie in the extremitiesof the complementary ends of the tabs.

Although in Figure 2 the cutout is shown as having the outline of anoblique-angled parallelogram, it will be apparent that a very similartab outline could be produced with a cutout having the outline of arectangular parallelogram. The particular outline of the closed die usedsimultaneously to notch and to separate the adjacent side edges of whatwould otherwise be complementary tabs depends entirely on what isdesired in the way of tab design.

In Figure 3 the novel method of modifying what would otherwise beshingle strips having complementary tabs to produce shingle stripshaving like but non-complementary tabs which have certain desiredcharacteristics is shown as applied to the production of shingle stripshaving tabs of dovetail outline but without gusset reinforcement oftheir junctions with the main bodies of the strips, these tabs, however,having curved side edges. In order to produce the shingle strip havingtabs of the outline shown in Figure 3, an approximately elliptical dieextending from the end of one tab to the complementary end of theadjacent tab removes a piece 34 of the narrow approximately ellipticalshape shown in Figure 3, the inclination of this piece to the main bodyof the strip and its width being such that no gusset is produced.

From the foregoing description it will be seen that by utilizing acutter or die having a closed outline and of a length equal to the sidelength of what would otherwise be completely complementary shingle tabs,non-complementary strip shingles having like tabs may be cut from rollroofing with a minimum of waste of material and with a minimum ofcutting edges to be maintained in sharpened condition.

What is claimed as new is:

1. A strip shingle having tabs with straightedged ends and of narrowersection between their ends and their junctions with the main body of thestrip, said narrower sections being so located and so shaped as toprovide tabs of generally dovetail outline with gusset-likereinforcement of their junctions with the main body of the strip, thespace between the said junctions of adjacent tabs with the main body ofthe strip being equal to the width of the end of the tab.

2. A strip shingle having tabs with straightedged ends and of narrowersection between their ends and their junctions with the main body of thestrip, said narrower sections being so located as to provide tabs ofgenerally dovetail outline with gusset-like reinforcement of theirjunctions with the main body of the strip, the width of the tab where itjoins the strip approximating the width of the end of the tab, and alsothe space between the aforementioned junctions of adjacent tabs with themain body of the strip.

3. The process of making a strip shingle provided with like butnon-complementary tabs having straight-edged complementary ends andsides recessed from the main body of the strip, which consists incutting from sheet material two tabbed strips, each having its tabsformed from the material taken from the recesses of the other, andsimultaneously removing, from each side of what would otherwise be thecommon straight side boundary lines of the tabs of complementary shinglestrips having straight-sided tabs, material extending from the pointonly where said straight boundary line would meet the tab end line ofthe tab of one strip to the point only where said boundary line wouldmeet the tab end line of the adjacent tab of the other strip to producelike and correspondingly located recesses in the sides of the respectiveadjacent tabs except at their ends, said removed material tapering to apoint at each of said main body junctions.

4. The process of making a strip shingle provided with non-complementarytabs having complementary straight-edged ends and narrower sectionsbetween their ends and their junctions with the main body of the stripand of generally 20 dovetail outline but with gusset-like reinforcementsof their junctions with the main body of the strip, which consists incutting from sheet material two tabbed strips, each having its tabsformed from the material taken from the recesses of the other, andsimultaneously removing, from each side of what would otherwise be thecommon side boundary lines of the tabs of complementary shingle stripshaving straight-sided tabs, material extending from the point only wheresaid straight boundary line would meet the tab end line of the tab ofone strip to the point only where said boundary line wouldmeet the tabend line of the adjacent tab of the other strip to produce like andcorrespondingly located recesses in the sides of the. respectiveadjacent tabs except at their ends, said removed material tapering to apoint at each of said main body junctions.

JOHN A. TOPPING.

